This afternoon, Google surprised the tech world with the announcement and launch of a brand new Chromebook laptop. Dubbed the Chromebook Pixel, the machine is the first Chromebook laptop to feature a touchscreen. It's also the first to feature such a high price tag. Costing $1,299 for the WiFi-only version, the Chromebook Pixel is aimed squarely at those that have full embraced the cloud. But how much will it cost in the UK?
Luckily for UK consumers, Google isn't just switching out the dollar sign for a pound sign. Unfortunately, UK shoppers are still getting screwed a bit. Those residing in the UK can snap up a Chromebook Pixel for £1,049. In case you were wondering, that translates to $1,600, which is higher even than the U.S. price of the LTE Pixel ($1,449).
The Chromebook Pixel packs a a 12.85-inch 2560 x 1700 display (with a PPI of 239), an Intel Core i5 processor (dual core, clocked to 1.8GHz) with integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000, 4 GB DDR3 RAM, 32 GB Solid State Drive with 1TB of free cloud storage (though it's only good for three years), 2 x USB 2.0 ports, HD Webcam, a clickable glass trackpad, a backlit keyboard, dual band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n 2x2, Bluetooth 3.0 and optional LTE.
The WiFi-only version is on sale in the UK starting today (via the Google Play store). No word on when the LTE model will launch in the UK, but it's headed for the states in April. Google didn't offer any details on pricing for that, either. Hopefully, it won't also cost the equivalent of $300 more for UK customers, but it's not out of the realm of possibility. That would put the laptop's price at under £1,150 by today's rates.
